WINTER OLYMPICS (AGAIN): Sorry, week three of my Winter Olympics ranting starts here. What a climax, the US versus Canada ice hockey final was one of the most gripping sporting events I’ve watched in a long, long time.
But during the breaks I found myself getting annoyed. Annoyed by a number of things... like is Matthew Pinsent really worth a place as a pundit on ice hockey. It seemed nearly as bizarre as earlier in the games when they had Paula Radcliffe as a guest commentator for the curling.
Seemingly for no other reason than she happened to be available.
You see the point is, most of the viewers in the United Kingdom know very little about these sports, so having a commentator who actually knows lots about the sport is kind of helpful.
Having a marathon runner famous for being caught short mid race who knows very little about curling but is excited about being in Vancouver doesn’t help you follow the action.
The ice hockey was by far and away the main event of the night. If you’d turned on the World Cup final and found the pundits were Graham Gooch and Sebastien Coe, you would think it was more than a little bid odd wouldn’t you?
Still, back to the action, it was fantastic. Unlike the British medal haul which was debated during one of the other breaks in the play.
One gold medal. The question they seemed to be asking was ‘is this really good enough?’
Are they serious? Is Britain ever really expected to get medals in some of these events? Is some kid from Wolverhampton ever expected to compete with some Austrian mountain goat child who was born with a pair of skis attached.
Is it fair to even expect them to do better?
Personally I think they’ve done well if they get any kind of medal in any of the events.
The only medal Britain would be likely to win that involved snow would be panicking...
TELEVISION: ‘We like watching football don’t we’ our nearly three-year-old Seren said to me the other day.
Her comment came just moments after I’d observed her elder sister careering round the front room, kicking a globe around, while singing the Match of the Day theme tune.
Her eyes returned to the Carling Cup Final, I’m sure she’d actually rather have been watching CBeebies but I’ve got her pretty well trained.
“We watch football,” she repeated, “not like Mummy who just watches Neighbours...”
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL: Now I like football as much as the next man. Maybe more. But even I am starting to have sympathy with those people who say there’s too much on television.
My opinion is being swayed by the quite frankly bizarre decision of ITV to televise the Republic of Ireland versus Brazil live on prime time TV.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but this was an international friendly between two teams, neither of who are British. Yes it was an intriguing encounter, yes it was Brazil, but they were playing the Republic. Sorry, but the last time I looked at an atlas of Europe the Republic of Ireland was not part of Great Britain.
I know there’s even lots of Irish people in Britain, but there’s also lots of Poles –no-one’s going to suggest we should start televising Poland versus Belgium.
England versus Egypt is fair enough, but if they were that desperate to show another game why not Wales versus Sweden or the Scots against the Czech Republic – after all, England apart, I think the Home Nations get a pretty rough deal with regards television coverage.
There does seem to be this ‘international football means England’ attitude with both the BBC and ITV. I know what you’re going to say, BBC Wales sometimes show Wales. Yes, sometimes.
But if they’re got a big game how about putting it across all channels? And I don’t just mean when they play England in the qualifiers.
The only seeming reason for Brazil and Ireland making the cut was that it was played at the Emirates in London.
Which brings me to my last thought for the day. Why do international teams always just play other countries. In a build-up for the World Cup would England not be just as well served by travelling just a few miles and playing Arsenal than they would playing away in Kazakhstan of the like. It’d be a hell of a game...